After his team's four-point Southen Conference loss Saturday at Wofford, Makinde London finished his interview session by echoing the thoughts of many during the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's recent skid.
"We don't want (character building)," the 6-foot-10 junior said on the postgame radio broadcast. "We want wins."
The Mocs built a 12-point lead but fell 71-67 to the Terriers. That came after overtime losses to The Citadel and Mercer in which UTC played with only eight available players.
Dating back to last season, UTC has dropped 12 consecutive games against SoCon competition, the last win being a 74-68 victory at Virginia Military Institute on Feb. 15, 2017. This season's Mocs have lost eight straight games, seven of those in league play.
The Mocs seem to be getting closer, though. The last three losses have come by a combined 17 points - the average of the team's first four SoCon losses.
"We're growing," London said Saturday. "There's no excuses - I'm never one to make them - but we're growing. I've got full faith and confidence in all my guys: We've got to grow. I think in the long run, these situations are going to have us ready when we need it."
London had missed the three previous games with an ankle injury but returned to score 20 points in 26 minutes. Freshman James Lewis was back after a shoulder injury caused him to miss six games and had 12 points and six rebounds. Their additions helped give a blow to some players who had been asked to play heavy minutes in recent games, but coach Lamont Paris looked at the stat sheet and saw where Rodney Chatman still played 39 minutes, Nat Dixon 37 and Makale Foreman 36.
Wofford's Fletcher Magee heated up after a cold start, scoring all but five of his 26 points in the second half of the win, but Paris was more concerned about the Mocs' nine second-half turnovers, which led to 15 Terriers points.
"We can counteract him by playing smart and not turning the ball over," Paris said. "(Magee's shooting) is not what beat us: He's going to make some baskets. We can't give those possessions up.
"As efficiently as we were playing on the offensive end, the quality of shot was very high, and you can't forfeit those because we're getting too good of shots."
Coming off a three-game road stretch, the Mocs are home for the next three, starting with Wednesday's game against Samford, which defeated UTC by 17 on Dec. 30. When asked if the home stand would matter, Paris said, "No."
"What's that mean?" Paris said. "We don't have to travel? It literally doesn't matter. I don't really hardly ever talk about home versus on the road, because I aspire to be playing a lot of games in a place that's not our gym.
"You've got to be the type of guy that it doesn't matter what the crowd does, it doesn't affect you. You can still make the same shots, make the same passes, make the same plays."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.